The Reckoning by Vikki Petraitis

The Reckoning is the third Antigone Pollard novel from Vikki Petraitis, the Melbourne crime writer whose first in the series, The Unbelieved, won the Allen & Unwin Crime Fiction Prize. It works on its own, though the earlier books, The Unbelieved and The Stolen, are well worth reading first.

When two convicted rapists walk free on appeal, the town of Deception Bay splits in two. The men turn up to a hero's welcome at a packed cricket ground on Australia Day, and before lunch is over dozens of people, the two men among them, have fallen ill. Detective Antigone Pollard and her partner Wozza have to work out fast whether it was an accident or something deliberate. Then Antigone's mother, a doctor, disappears while answering a call for help, and it all gets personal.

A hard, morally sharp Australian crime novel about justice that does not come, for readers of Garry Disher and Chris Hammer.